Review : A whisker away from death

IN LATE 1981, an animal thought to be extinct was rediscovered in a town in Wyoming. But it was dead, killed by a rancher's dog. The black-footed ferret, a small masked mustelid, immediately became the most wanted animal in the West. The story of the black-footed ferret's near extinction and its discovery, rescue and reintroductionall in less than 15 yearsis an exciting one. Yet this is not the main subject of Tim Clark's Averting Extinction.

Instead, Clark scrutinises the mistakes and delays that plagued the first five years of the campaign to save what was then the most endangered mammal in the US. He briefly brings the project up to date in the epilogue. The ferret became a political prize to be fought over. It was won, in the main, by the Wyoming Game and Fish Departmentthe organisation which ...

To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.

To continue reading this article, log in or subscribe to New Scientist